pait-pait, with a variety of chattering notes, in tone resembling the human voice, which, indeed, they can be taught to imitate.
An egg of this species from Monterey, California, is of a rounded oval shape, a little less obtuse at one end than the other. The ground-color is a light drab, so closely marked with fine cloudings of an obscure lavender color as nearly to conceal the ground, and to give the egg the appearance of an almost uniform violet-brown. It measures 1.20 inches in length by .90 in breadth.
Genus CYANURA, Swainson.
Cyanurus, Swainson, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 495, Appendix. (Type, Corvus cristatus, Linn.)
Cyanocitta, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851 (not of Strickland, 1845).
Cyanura cristata.
1423
Gen. Char. Head crested. Wings and tail blue, with transverse black bars; head and back of the same color. Bill rather slender, somewhat broader than high at the base; culmen about equal to the head. Nostrils large, nearly circular, concealed by bristles. Tail about as long as the wings, lengthened, graduated. Hind claw large, longer than its digit.
Species and Varieties.
Common Characters. Wings and tail deep blue, the latter, with the secondaries and tertials, sometimes also the greater coverts, barred with black.